Yura Yura Teikoku -- Yakousei no Ikimono Sanbiki（夜行性の生き物3匹）

A few years ago, I encountered this alternative/psychedelic/indies rock band called Yura Yura Teikoku（ゆらゆら帝国）and saw some of their videos with the expected impressions. However, I ended up writing about "Lonely Satellite", a Happy End-ish song that was so outside of their template that I actually categorized it as a pop number.

Well, this time, I'm going with something that's well within Yura Yura Teikoku's rock range. Even so, "Yakousei no Ikimono Sanbiki" (Three Nocturnal Animals) has also got its own distinctiveness that would probably get the song and its music video into a late-night surreal music video program such as my own beloved "City Limits".

Y'know...I think that I would rather translate the title into English as "The Three Nightcrawlers" to match vocalist Shintaro Sakamoto's（坂本慎太郎）lyrics about this grungy trio exploring every nook and cranny of downtown while he sings about subverting every bit of the listener's sensibilities into rust within the length of the song. A song as psychological suspense? In any case, the melody by Yura Yura Teikoku is rock'n twangy thanks to some shamisen (?) help, and according to Sakamoto in an interview through the J-Wiki write-up, he had patterned the music after the traditional Awa Odori（阿波踊り）dance, originally from Tokushima Prefecture, so video director Yasuyuki Yamaguchi（山口保幸）suggested the video simply have three Awa Odori dancers mixing it up onscreen.

The suggestion worked. It won for Best Alternative Video at the Space Shower Music Video Awards in 2004. "Yakousei no Ikimono Sanbiki" was never released as a single but was a track on the band's 4th major album "Yura Yura Teikoku no Shibire"（ゆらゆら帝国のしびれ...The Wobbling Empire on Pins and Needles） in February 2003. The album managed to reach as high as No. 28 on Oricon.

Yura Yura Teikoku -- Lonely Satellite

Over the past week or so, I heard of the news concerning Japan's latest satellite, Hitomi, which may have gone kaput due to some sort of malfunction. It was apparently supposed to be studying black holes but it has perhaps gone into a black hole itself...a rather sad state of affairs for the nation's equivalent of NASA, JAXA.

Strangely enough, within the last few number of days, I coincidentally came across this video on YouTube called "Lonely Satellite" by a band called Yura Yura Teikoku（ゆらゆら帝国）which had its run between 1989 and 2010. According to its Wikipedia article, it was a unit specializing in psychedelic rock. However, "Lonely Satellite", which is a track on its eleventh and final album from 2007, "Kuudou desu"（空洞です...Hollow Me/Beautiful）, just comes off as a sweet and breezy pop ballad regarding a satellite which seems to be on its last legs or batteries and is making its goodbyes, but not before urging the citizens down below to get some sort of lasting peace. I have to give my thanks to the commenter jikotaka3 who provided the translation.

If Hitomi were indeed sentient, perhaps I would have pegged "Lonely Satellite" as an autobiography. Yura Yura Teikoku came up with the music while vocalist Shintaro Sakamoto（坂本慎太郎）wrote up the final words for the satellite. The way it sounds, it's definitely a relaxing-in-the-hammock type of song. And I am reminded of that New Music band about 40 years prior, Happy End, listening to this one. As for the album, "Kuudou desu", it got as high as No. 21 on Oricon.

Yura Yura Teikoku had a varying lineup but by the end of their run, it was Sakamoto with bassist Chiyo Kamekawa（亀川千代）and drummer Ichiro Shibata（柴田一郎）.